KARACHI - Looking for evidences to substantiate Rs230 billion corruption, Sindh Rangers on Monday raided the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) office
Heavy contingent of Rangers conducted a raid at the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) headquarter located at Civic Centre, Gulshan-e-Iqbal. Sources said the personnel of paramilitary force investigate the high officials of SBCA over corruption in approval of building plans.
The personnel also questioned the acting Director General of SBCA, Mumtaz Haider about the SBCA DG Manzoor Qadir who is on leave since a month. They investigated the approvals of building plans in the posh areas of the city including Clifton and Defence area. After the 15 minutes of inquiry, the personnel seized several documents and also filmed the record of the SBCA.
Some officials of the SBCA, on condition of anonymity, told that the paramilitary force is interfering in the institutions’ affairs that has affected the morale and progress of the department. They said fear prevailed among the employees after the paramilitary action. During the raid, Rangers officials inquired about the department officials who have left the country long time ago.
“We will come back tomorrow, said a Rangers official just before leaving the premises of the building after taking along the official records of the department,” they said. Sources said the Rangers officials warned the SBCA officials not to absent on Tuesday as Rangers will visit them on Tuesday again.
The officials said former SBCA DG Manzoor Qadir Kaka reportedly left the country a month back but the law enforcers were unaware about Kaka.
On the other side, during the second phase of Karachi operation against white-collar crime, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested five officials of Lines Area Redevelopment Project (LARP) over selling of reshuffled land to the builders of worth Rs4.5 billion.
The NAB arrested five officials over the charges of Rs4.5 billion fraud. It was the second action by the NAB, Karachi in two weeks. Earlier, the NAB arrested the secretary excise and taxation department, Badar Jamil Mandhro and director anti-corruption department, Khadim Hussain Channa for making illegal appointments in the minorities department officers on June 4. They are still in the custody of NAB Karachi for 14 days remand by the NAB court. The arrested five officials of LARP included Deputy Director Fareed Naseem, Additional Director Atta Abbas, Additional Director Rashid Hussain, Director Waseem Iqbal and Deputy Director Shahid Umar.
According to NAB spokesperson, the arrests were made after receiving a number of complaints. “We were receiving complaints against them from the past few months. We also raided their office about three months ago and collected the data.” He said that NAB also obtained evidences regarding the case.
He said the LARP officials had been arrested over land grabbing of worth billions of rupees. “They were involved in land grabbing of over 1200 plots worth Rs4.5 billion through ‘China-cutting’ to bypass the auction which was otherwise mandatory as per the law and the lands had been allotted to builders and land mafia at throw-away prices for bribe and commission. The accused persons have amassed huge assets for themselves through corruption. The interrogation from these accused persons would help reveal the names of their accomplices.